By David Roberts
Most people are back at work this week and the children are back to school.
Already there are many things happening in the world that could change how 2020 compares with 2019, some will impact the projects, programmes and portfolios that you are involved in and some will impact the environment in which we operate.
We welcome the opportunity to continue working with you and meeting your PPM needs through all these changes.
Before looking forward let’s consider 2019 for a moment. Last year was a good one for CUPE International, building on 2018 with new products, services and achievements. A few of the highlights from the year:
- CUPE International welcomed new partners in Kenya, UK and Germany
- CUPE International continued to work with our corporate clients and added some new clients
- CUPE International signed an MoU with Kingston University and held our first event at the University
- CUPE International conducted the ABC Scrum Master pilot course on behalf of APMG
- CUPE International provided facilitators for more events for clients than any other year
- Added ABC Scrum Mater qualification to the CUPE International portfolio
- David Roberts appointed as a Non-Executive of the Agile Business Consortium Board
- Sheila Roberts appointed as the Chair of Examiners for the Association for Project Management
- David Roberts and Sheila Roberts became Chartered Project Professionals
- Sheila Roberts elected to continue as Treasurer of ASPECT Organisation
There are lots more details but we want to focus on looking forward. We cannot, however, leave the 2019 review without mentioning the sad news of the death of Chris Holt of CHIM, one of our partners and CUPE Consultant in Germany. We will dedicate a separate blog to Chris, who added greatly to our ‘Tribe’ we will miss his input to the team.
The outcome of the 2019 UK election has identified a way forward for UK businesses which means that our clients are already starting to make decisions for 2020, which is important for our European clients and partners. The beginning of January is traditionally very quiet but this year we are already seeing an increase in individual and corporate orders. These are global from Australia and New Zealand to Canada. People can see the value of updating their skills and knowledge to meet the changing circumstances of the world.
In 2020 CUPE International will continue to build. We have two new Consultant Trainers joining us in Q1 and look forward to the benefits their additional experience and skills bring for our clients. We are looking forward to welcoming three new partners joining us in mainland Europe, UK and Africa. These are for a range of product areas, including our online resources.
We are also aware of the considerable strains that many PPM roles place on individuals, which has become greater through the years of austerity and recession. We are looking at how to support people and teams to enable them to manage these pressures. For this, we are reviewing a new collaboration approach this week.
As Chartered Project Professional status becomes more widely known and recognised we are developing ways to support people through the application process. We have a beta testing fitness checker available for you, just contact us and we will send it to you. We can also offer advice on the written submission or interview preparation.
A VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) environment places an even greater need to work with a clear vision, yet having the flexibility to respond to changes.
The appropriate skills and support is central to meeting this challenge and we look forward to continuing to help teams either to upskill or with coaching.
